KC's Art Gallery

• I was so caught off guard by the direction Jax’s story went. I didn’t even register what had happened at first until I heard several people in the theater gasp and whisper “Jax? Is that—is that Jax??”

• They really spent this hour letting the characters feel out their emotions, and personally I loved that. All the crying, the tight hugs, the heartfelt moments; all of that was so important to this finale and you were really made to sit with it

• I liked the sequence of Pomni going ‘inside’ of his mind (?) and getting all of this context/lore for his character and personality. It went long but for all the buildup Jax has had across the series I felt like it was justified. His flashback sequences almost make me wish we had a miniseries of just him, Ribbit, and Kaufmo, and all the shenanigans they got up to

• Also kinda seems like the adventures were fun/chill for a while when the cast just consisted of Kinger, Ragatha, Kaufmo, Ribbit, and Jax?? No one seemed to be especially traumatized. Ribbit was having fun and it certainly wasn’t at the expense of anyone, not as far as we’ve been led to believe.

• I also noticed that Caine in the background in one of the flashback scenes just sort of…pinwheeled his entire body out of frame. Idk if anyone else caught it but I was hysterical

• “Your secret’s safe with me” TRANS JAX CONFIRMED and executed so elegantly. Nothing more needed to be said. No one had to say outright ‘I think I’m a girl’ or ‘are you trans?’. Kind of a refreshing take

• I was so delighted to hear Arin Hanson’s voice come out of Kaufmo that I punched the air in excitement

• It took the theater a moment to react but I cannot believe they snuck the f-slur in there

• Personally, as someone who has always had a hard time getting a read on Jax, I think his end suited him. He always had people in the Circus who cared about him, but when he tried to be vulnerable and open about his feelings he would put his walls back up as quickly as possible, and doing that so many times again and again ultimately led to his downfall. By the time he realized his mistakes it was too late to come back from abstracting. Self sabotage is real, it can happen to anyone; sitting in your anguish is a hell of a lot easier than confronting it and asking for help, but it won’t lead you anywhere

• That didn’t stop literally everyone in the circus from still trying to help him, even after everything, because at the end of the day he was still worth being loved. Even if abstraction is permanent, the rest of the cast made it their mission to make him comfortable and feel safe. It was physically painful for them to do so but they did it anyway. That’s love. Sometimes we don’t see it when it’s right in front of us.

• Where the hell did they get the license to play a Stevie Wonder song. How did they accomplish that. I love indie media.

• And oh, Caine. My sweet boy Caine. I may have been the only one in the theater who wasn’t surprised to see him peeking around the corner since I went in clutching so tightly to my ‘Caine is still alive’ theory it was like a life preserver

• The sequence of him in the void was so, so excellent. I can’t wait to see the animation bts of it. When he fell out of the sky, tumbled onto the ground, and immediately recovered to keep sprinting…what fucking fantastic animation.

• As someone who really only recently fell deeply in love with Caine as a character, his entire, mostly wordless experience out in the void was everything to me. It was spectacularly animated, dripping with symbolism, gorgeous visuals.

• That whole sequence felt like such a full circle moment for Caine, supported by the parallels of his basic model/red dot flashbacks when he first brought the original brain scans to life (I was confused when he brought Mike into the circus but I’m pretty sure it was just meant to act as a mirror to what he was doing in present, or something like that)

• I was surprised to see that ‘Abel’ was actually quite small and underdeveloped as a program, it means that Caine absorbed him very early on. Even still, Abel was a strong enough program to give him the boost he needed to create the circus and reign over it. Taking Abel out and letting it go was him willingly giving up his strength in favor of working with and developing a deeper relationship with the humans 🔵

• 🎩 “I never programmed you to say you loved me.”

🌙 “I know.”

Says one sentient, human-like program to another…but also, says the creator to their creation. I am you and you are me. We are intrinsically linked. Go and know that you are loved.

• (Symbolism aside I still do like Bluetooth tbh. They should get to kiss)

• Given that Jax and Caine, according to Gooseworx, were created with their own personality/inner demons in mind, I think both of their story arcs suit them. They ended up occupying similar spaces in the narrative but having completely different, totally opposing endings.

• I was really, really surprised by the inclusion of their ‘human’ selves, as in ‘we hired real actors and made fake social media profiles for every single one of them’, but again, I kind of liked it? It creates a necessary degree of separation between the ‘fake’ and ‘real’ worlds. These are two very separated realities, but both humans and ‘toons’ exist and thrive in the worlds they are thrust into, despite everything they’ve endured.

• There is an element of ‘what does it mean to be human?’ that gets explored in the finale that I think boils down to ‘I’m human where it counts. All that matters now is what I do with that, and how I maintain that humanity in the face of adversity’

• In the end, Kinger really was a certified girl dad

• The montage sequence was just so…heartwarming. It’s rare that an ending to a long-running story like this one can leave you feeling so…happy. Endings are so hard to get right and I do feel like they were successful.

• The main takeaway I got from the finale overall was compassion and vulnerability. Being vulnerable sucks, especially regarding personal issues, but it’s such a huge and necessary part of being human. It can be scary and daunting and not seem worthwhile, and it definitely feels that way a lot more often than not, but it’s still worth it in the end.

We will make mistakes. We will say or do the wrong thing. What matters is what we do with the information we’re given, and how we can continue to extend compassion even when it’s hard, even when it seems impossible. Even when it doesn’t feel ‘deserved’ or ‘earned’.

• I’m sure many of us did this; I waved back at Pomni at the end.